The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) at Minden

British Royal Horse Guards
Elite Miniatures

I have been on a painting frenzy the past couple of weeks for the Minden wargame on August 3, 2019. My British forces were woefully inadequate as it had been five plus year since I have added anything onto that particular B.A.R. rules army.

I first built up my contingent of British grenadiers so that I could have a passable "Maxwell's Grenadiers" battalion of infantry. So I added 12-figure companies of the following regiments' grenadier companies: The 8th (King's) Regiment, 51st (Brudenell's) Regiment, 12th (Napier's) Regiment. Adding these to my existing grenadier companies of the 11th (Sowle's) Regiment and the 3rd (Howard's) Regiment give me five stands of twelve figures for a total of 60 figures.

Next on the to do list was to paint two squadrons of the Royal Horse Guards, also known as The Blues because they were the only British cavalry regiment to wear blue coats, rather than the more common red coat. The two squadrons are shown in the picture at the top of the page. The figures are from Elite Miniatures, with Suren figures used for the standard bearers. The flags are from The Flag Dude (flags still need to have the poles trimmed down and then attached to the figures).

I have had both the figures and the flags sitting in a box for more years than I can remember. So this upcoming Minden game has spurred me on to finally paint the figures. The figures have pin swords soldered on and because all of the swords are pointing upwards, I would imagine that someone (s) going to get his fingers pierced and skewered a time or two.

I am currently working on a third squadron using Minden Miniatures. I have the Minden figures mounted on a wood base which elevates them to the same height as the larger Elite Miniatures.

Next on the list - adding two British artillery crews manning 12-pound cannon. I already have two 6-pound cannon and crew in my British army. The cannon models and most of the crew are from Elite Miniatures, but there are a few Front Rank figures in there as well.

British Royal Artillery section of two 12-pound cannon and crew.
Elite Miniatures and Front Rank figures.

Can you spot the number of Front Rank figures in the above picture? Please feel free to put your answer in the comments section of this blog post.

There is nothing like the prospect of a wargame in a fortnight to concentrate one's mind on painting figures for said gam.